Beast
by LeeleeAiren
Summary: Lenalee wonders why Lavi suddenly brought up the question.


This is greatly inspired by KanLena fics that had concepts of the story of the Beauty and the Beast. This is the result of reading all those fanfictions and me finally getting some inspiration and motivation. This is my second attempt of fanfiction so I apologize in advance for mistakes and confusing parts, and I'm very sorry if the Beauty and the Beast concept is already very overused. I do hope you'll give it a chance, though.

Disclaimer: I do not own Man.

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"_Do you know the story of 'Beauty and the Beast'?"_

Lenalee would hate to think that Kanda was the Beast in the story. He certainly wasn't bad-looking; in fact Lenalee found him very attractive. His long and silky dark hair, which she often envied, and his perfectly sculpted sharp features made him look as beautiful as he was dangerous. Most of the female population in the Order thought so too.

But of course, the story had not been pertaining to outer beauty. While the Beast had once been very handsome, he had an ugly personality. And as a result, he was cursed and turned into a beast until he changed his ways and found someone who would look past his horrifying exterior and learn to love him for his inner self.

But that was the problem. Lenalee didn't think Kanda had an ugly personality. He was just… well, Kanda- independent, strong, brave, confident, cherished his moments of unperturbed silence, and… grumpy.

Everyone except Lenalee found him arrogant, selfish and rude. Lenalee didn't understand why they did. Maybe she was the only one who truly ever knew him.

He was arrogant because he had a reason to be; he was strong and capable of taking care of himself, although Lenalee constantly worried over his well-being during his missions. He was selfish, or so they say. Lenalee had a different definition of selfish when it pertains to Kanda- when he wanted something and got it, he wouldn't share because he cherished it so much that he's afraid to lose it. And Kanda was rude? Lenalee always thought he just couldn't express himself the way others easily do. That, or Lenalee had the talent of reading Kanda like a book.

So back to the matter at hand, why would Lavi imply that Kanda is the Beast in the story? Maybe Lavi hadn't been implying anything. Maybe Lenalee had been imagining things. But the suspiciously innocent look on Lavi's face made Lenalee think otherwise. No, there was definitely something underneath that simple question.

If Kanda were the Beast, then who was Beauty? Lenalee wondered if Kanda already found his Beauty. Beauty accepted Beast for all of him, even his appearance. She began thinking of all possible females that could be Kanda's Beauty. He had a lot of fan girls so her mind had been muddled by faces of most female in the Order.

She fell asleep later that night, mentally exhausted because of all of her earlier musings. She was blissfully unaware that Beauty had shown herself in her reflection in the mirror countless times earlier that night when she had started pacing around her room.

If reflections could reach out and slap you until realization dawned, Lenalee's reflection would have done so a long time ago.

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"Welcome back, Kanda."

As usual, she was the first to greet him upon his arrival from another mission. He was exhausted but seeing her waiting for him by the gates with her smile widening as he came nearer, he felt somewhat relieved of his tiredness. He didn't say anything back per usual nor show any sign of acknowledging her greeting, but she had seen the way his shoulders relaxed a bit as soon as he was a feet away from her.

She caught his hand as he passed by her, a frown marring her features. "You're hurt, aren't you?"

"It's nothing you should worry about."

He pulled his hand away and went inside the building, heading straight to his room. Lenalee shook her head and rushed after him, settling to walk beside him in silence. He didn't shoo her away like he would to anyone else, but he still glared at her as they made their way to his room. His glare had no effect on Lenalee whatsoever.

"Will you let me see your injury?" Lenalee asked as soon as they reached his door. His hand paused on the doorknob and Lenalee grinned inwardly when she realized he seemed to be considering it.

"Kanda-san…" A small voice caught their attention and they both turned to a girl who looked about the same age as Lenalee. She was blushing under Kanda's stern glare while she looked on rather curiously at Lenalee. There was a small gift on her hand and slowly, she reached it out to Kanda.

Kanda looked impatient while Lenalee gasped and stared incredulously at the girl. She was the first to have ever had the courage to walk up to the swordsman and present him a gift.

"Tch, whatever." Kanda glared at the object. He turned his back on the girl and went inside his room. He closed the door with a loud bang while Lenalee and the girl stood outside looking rejected. The girl left soon afterward with a dejected face while Lenalee remained just outside Kanda's room.

Her thoughts went back to the story of Beauty and the Beast. What if that girl…

Lenalee felt hollow. She walked away from Kanda's room and ended up on the library sitting in front of Lavi. The redhead watched Lenalee's troubled face and asked her if something was bothering her.

"The ending of the story… was it a happy ending?" Lenalee asked instead. Truth be told, Lenalee never got to know the story's ending.

Lavi was taken aback for a moment before he closed his book and leaned against his chair. He told her that the story had many versions, one popular version had a happy ending. While the original…

"…He died of a broken heart."

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Lenalee dreamed that night. She was roaming around the Order, greeting her friends as she passed them by the hallways, making her brother coffee and then meditating with Kanda. Their conversations were mostly the usual- about Leverrier and how she's hiding from him, how she thinks she's weak but Kanda cheers her up by telling her he thinks she's wrong about herself.

She thanked him, wiping the tears off her eyes and stood to leave. As soon as her hands came in contact with the door, everything went black and she heard Lavi's voice echoing in the background.

"_Do you know the story of 'Beauty and the Beast'?"_

The scene changed and she found herself as a little girl of eight following ten year old Kanda like a puppy. He looked annoyed while she looked happy. Then, the scene changed and it showed her when she was thirteen and Kanda was fifteen. His voice had settled into a deep baritone by then, and he had grown taller and much more attractive than when Lenalee first saw him. She believed it was the first time she ever had a crush on a boy.

The scene changed again and again, showing her memories of herself and Kanda growing up together. A smile grew on her lips when it showed a sixteen year old Lenalee crying and hugging Kanda tightly around his bandaged waist while he looked anywhere but her as he patted her back awkwardly with a hint of a blush on his cheeks. She remembered that it had been when he had been fatally injured in a fight against akuma, and she had rushed to the hospital wing once she heard the news.

Everything went black again, and Lenalee waited patiently for anything to happen.

"_Kanda-san…"_

There it was, the voice of the girl who appeared before Kanda, offering him a present as she showed him her admiration. Lenalee turned on her heel to face the girl but was surprised to find herself instead. There was no girl, no Kanda… just herself at the time when the girl came up to the swordsman to hand him a gift.

Lenalee felt her heart wrench painfully as she realized the look she had on her face the whole time. Surprise, disappointment, fear, hurt… she didn't want Kanda to find his Beauty. If anything, she was the selfish one. She didn't want to lose him. He was a good friend to her, a really good friend-

_Is that all he is to you… a good friend?"_

She recognized her own voice drifting through the darkness of her dream. Her other self had long disappeared and she was left alone, standing in the middle of the darkness. She closed her eyes, her heart once again tugging painfully. Kanda was a good-

_Don't you think he's more than that?_

She thought, with wry humor, that she was insane like her brother. Surely having a voice inside your head thinking the opposite of what you're thinking was proof of that. She didn't answer back, her mind inside her mind going back through the scenes that flashed before her. Scenes of herself and Kanda together…

"…_He died of a broken heart."_

Lenalee opened her eyes with a start. She sat up on her bed and looked around, completely disoriented. She glanced at the clock and realized it was nearly dawn. She put on her coat and went out her room to see Kanda.

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"Nightmare?"

Lenalee nodded her head unsurely, but Kanda somehow didn't take notice or just plainly ignored her uncertainty. She decided it was the latter. Kanda was too observant for his own good.

She closed the door behind her and just stood there, watching him. Kanda shifted uncomfortably before glaring at her. "Tch, did you come here just to look at me?"

Lenalee blinked and felt a smile blooming on her lips. She went to his bed and sat beside him. She was blushing, strange but she knew why. The dream… while it had been vague when she woke up, it was slowly coming back to her now.

She never noticed it before but somehow it caught her attention now, of all time, while the story of the cursed beast and the kind beauty swam through her mind persistently. An hourglass containing a single lotus flower was on top of Kanda's desk, the flower almost glowing in the moonlight. It was hidden behind an array of books, which was probably why she never noticed until now. Only the flower's glow through the moonlight gave it away, and there were three petals at the bottom.

It hit her then why Lavi mentioned it to her, why he thought Lenalee would care about such story, why Lavi mentioned Kanda, why Lenalee found it strange that Kanda was somehow similar to the Beast, why the girl's confession bothered her, and why she had that dream.

Things went through her head all at once and it overwhelmed her, making her dizzy until she felt Kanda's warm hands holding her in place. She looked up at him, gasping as his eyes gave away his concern for her strange behavior. She burst into tears because for once in her life, she knew what she had to do.

"I won't let you…" Lenalee whispered as she sobbed on his chest. She didn't see Kanda's face when he frowned and his lips turned down even more.

"I won't let you die of a broken heart."

She felt the way his body tensed after hearing her words before slowly relaxing inside her enveloping arms and hugging her back. She knew he understood; he, of all people, should know the story of Beauty and the Beast.

And they, of all people, should know that there were many versions to the story. And one popular version had a happy ending.

"I love you."

-

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Author's note: I realized there were some sentences that were very similar to other fics. I'm really sorry about that, but I don't think rephrasing them would really make this story better. I bet I'd just screw this up and end up deleting my story in frustration.

I'd greatly appreciate reviews!


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